Thwarted markets in everything

A New York City pet store that’s surrounded by bars has banned drunken puppy-buying.

Workers at Le Petite Puppy in Greenwich Village say customers tend to stumble in after happy hour and purchase a dog without thinking. Drunken customers now are forbidden to even hold the puppies, because they can drop them.

Store owner Dana Rich tells WINS-AM that she instructs people who have clearly been drinking to come back the next day.

Employees say they stress how much work it is to own a dog. They say they would rather lose a sale than send a puppy into an unsafe home.

“They say they would rather lose a sale than send a puppy into an unsafe home.”

Would that people took such care when electing a President.

MIchael FoodyJuly 10, 2011 at 10:46 am

What?

PopeyeJuly 10, 2011 at 11:38 am

As far as I know dearieme isn’t an American and doesn’t live in America. It’s a little bizarre.

RahulJuly 10, 2011 at 3:47 pm

Well, he didn’t say “an American president”

deariemeJuly 10, 2011 at 5:49 pm

Sorry chaps, you are being a little dim. Here’s a shop that announces a test for buying a puppy – that you be sober – and applies it. For the US Presidency there is a test – being over 35 and a natural born US citizen – and nobody applies it.

See, it wasn’t really very hard, was it?

MercyJuly 10, 2011 at 8:57 pm

I suspect people were giving you the benefit of the doubt there dearieme. It’s not that your comment couldn’t be interpreted as implying that Barack Obama was a Communist spy, but that choosing that interpretation would involve assuming you were an idiot.

TomJuly 10, 2011 at 10:50 pm

Or an assumption that Obama is an idiot, which, of course, would be correct.

deariemeJuly 11, 2011 at 9:02 am

A communist spy? I hadn’t heard that one. My mockery isn’t aimed at The Imom Obama, but at the idiocy of having a qualification test for the Presidency but no organised way of applying it. I gather that one of your earlier Presidents may have been Canadian: at least you won on that one, eh?

Tim MortonJuly 10, 2011 at 8:59 am

Considering the number of dogs in shelters, there’s no ethical case for buying from a store or breeder – unless your ethical system puts no value on the lives of dogs. Then I guess they’re just high-maintenance entertainment items.

scineramJuly 10, 2011 at 9:55 am

Same with procreation versus foster homes.

J ThomasJuly 10, 2011 at 1:04 pm

What is it like when you try to get a dog?

When I looked for a cat, the local pound demanded an identity check including criminal record and credit check, a home inspection to make sure our home would be a good place for their cat, and some sort of psychological profile. Plus a hefty fee. My wife was utterly unwilling to accept all that. It seemed extreme to me since the surplus cats would be killed within a week or two.

Then she visited a pet store. They had one cat left, a tiny kitten that was kept in a cage with feces smeared everywhere. She quickly paid 2/3 the pound’s price to “rescue” the kitten. All they wanted was the money, no home inspection, no psychological profile.

If I wanted one today I’d check Craig’s list.

Benny LavaJuly 10, 2011 at 3:05 pm

You live in a weird town. In my town they can be had cheap or sometimes free just by filling out a 1 pg application.

If people are willing to buy cats from a store in order to rescue them doesn’t that create a market for cats to be caged in filth?

J ThomasJuly 10, 2011 at 8:17 pm

You live in a weird town. In my town they can be had cheap or sometimes free just by filling out a 1 pg application.

Good! Of course, the $150 fee here gets you a cat that has all the shots and tests, and has been neutered.

Plus they watch you play with the cat to both give you a chance to confirm that the cat likes you and to give them some slight sense whether you will be good to the cat, and it pays for the home visit to make sure your home is adequate for an always-indoors cat (don’t tell them if you intend to let her out). And the credit check which indicates whether you can take care of her, etc.

If people are willing to buy cats from a store in order to rescue them doesn’t that create a market for cats to be caged in filth?

That’s what I told my wife. She was not interested. Even today, several years later, she reminisces about rescuing her little kitten from the evil pet store.

For awhile whenever we fed the kitten she would growl and be ready to fight anybody who got close to her food, but after awhile she calmed down and realized that nobody was going to take it away from her. She probably spent a fair time in a cage with bigger cats who didn’t share.

RahulJuly 10, 2011 at 3:52 pm

What if the shelter doesn’t have my type of dog in stock?

SeanJuly 11, 2011 at 8:14 am

I would have agreed with this up until very recently. However, my fiance’s grandfather is highly allergic to dogs. If we want one, and we do, we have to find a specific, hypoallergenic breed. Checking around at local shelters has not turned up any.

Related; any suggestions? We need a smaller dog. I’d prefer one that is not either hairless or a dustmop.

kJuly 10, 2011 at 10:07 am

Why is this a thwarted market?

It seems the store is trying to protect its reputation + the dogs it owns; this will only increase the value that anyone may receive from buying from the store.

So they are un-thwarting the market

KeithJuly 10, 2011 at 10:44 am

Expanding K’s point, I don’t believe the store is doing this to enhance its reputation. The owners and employees are intrinsically motivated by the welfare of dogs, at least at the when the employees actually see the potentially lame drunk owners.

But that intrinsic motivation and the publicity creates a reputation effect. There’s a moral here: The intrinsically motivated are better at signaling. They do it naturally.

Garrett G.July 10, 2011 at 1:32 pm

The store did the right thing. They took a moral and ethical stand over a financial one. Not all companies are willing to do that.

I agree with Tim Morton: there are plenty of volunteer-run, non-profit dog rescues, as well as animal shelters. Most post pictures of their dogs online.

RahulJuly 10, 2011 at 3:53 pm

Would Tyler call it a thwarted market if a bartender refused to serve an obviously drunk patron?